Communication, the flow of ideas and information between individuals in a social context, is the heart of educational experience. Constructivism and constructivist theories form the foundation for the collaborative learning processes of creating and sharing meaning in online educational contexts. The Learning and Collaboration in…

A study examined the extent of peer tutors' awareness of reading comprehension problems as a source of academic difficulties. The study, conducted in the spring of 1996, used a questionnaire to determine some of the reading habits of peer tutors and their perceptions of reading comprehension difficulties among students they tutored. The…

This report describes a program for increasing the level of motivation in art which currently interferes with the understanding and appreciation of art as it relates to career choices, and the quality and quantity of artistic products. Targeted population consists of high school students in a predominantly white, middle class community in rural…

The study compared attitudes of nine 6th grade students (eight female and one male) who volunteered to participate in a peer tutoring swimming program for moderately and severely handicapped children with the attitudes of the remainder of the sixth grade class (N=15) who had not volunteered. All students had previously completed a curriculum…

A description is given of the design, use, and evaluation of a series of microcomputer training workshops for teachers. Chapter 1 presents a justification for the program, citing societal, technological, and professional pressures on teachers, and the need for change in educational techniques. In chapter 2, a review of literature is offered on…

A study examined the effects of peer tutoring on the achievement of fourth grade remedial readers. Subjects (N=30) were randomly assigned to a control or an experimental group, both of which were pretested using the "Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests" and both received regular classroom instruction. The experimental group received tutoring for ten…

The purpose of this study was to see if cross-age tutoring by high schoolers would have an effect on the students' understanding and ability to write a short story. High schoolers, in an elective creative writing course, were paired up with sixth graders from a local feeder elementary. The high schoolers spent time studying specific short story…

This study examines the history, development, and important characteristics of Project: LEARN, a community-based literacy program in Cleveland (Ohio). The program started in 1974 and is an affiliate of Laubach Literacy International. It has successfully used volunteer tutors to teach basic reading and writing skills to thousands of illiterate…

An action research project describes a cross-age tutoring program to help increase the reading achievement of targeted second graders. The targeted population consisted of second and fifth graders in a middle class suburban community west of a large midwestern city. The problems of poor word attack skills and reading comprehension were documented…

A study determined if cross-age pairing of first-grade and sixth-grade students would have an effect on writing achievement. For 6 weeks, one group of beginning first-grade writers was paired with more able sixth-grade developing writers, while another group of beginning first-grade writers and sixth-grade developing writers was not cross-age…

This study examined teachers' and parents' perceptions of pedagogical successes in, and problems with, the implementation of mixed-age classes in primary education. Questionnaires were completed by 44 teachers in 2 British Columbia school districts, and by 41 parents of children in mixed-age classes in those districts. Some of the teachers were…